Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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General Practitioners that hold GMS contracts for the provision of services to medical card and GP visit card holders, are required under their contract to make suitable arrangements for emergencies outside normal practice hours.

Over 2,500 GPs currently hold a GMS contract, and while they are not obliged to, most GPs participate in GP Out of Hours cooperatives to meet their outside of practice hours service requirements. A robust GP Out of Hours services ensures that, as much as possible, urgent care needs are met in the community and not in a hospital setting.

The ShannonDoc cooperative provides GP out of hours services for Limerick, North Tipperary and Clare. As with the other GP out of hours cooperatives, Shannondoc is a private organisation. However, the HSE provides significant funding to support out of hours co-operative services through service level agreements, with ShannonDoc having received almost exactly €5 million in HSE funding in 2022.

The HSE is in regular contact with all Out of Hours service providers to ensure that these services continue to meet the needs of their local communities.